Profile
Bing Crosby
Singer + Actor
Male
Born
May 3, 1903
Hometown
Tacoma, Washington
Died
Oct 14, 1977
Death Place
Madrid
Genres
Jazz + Vocal musi...
Performed With
Fred Astaire + De...
Record Label
RCA Corporation
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation. A multimedia star, from 1934 to… Read More
Romance
Check out the latest love interests for Bing Crosby.
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Ginger MehanFling
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Kathryn GrantMarried
Family
Discover the family history of Bing Crosby.
Bing Crosby
d.1977
children
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Bing Crosby.
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The Paddock At Del Mar Fairgrounds Is Where Spectators Gather To View The ... Westside TodayGoogle News - Aug 26, 2011
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Pets Plus Comedy? That's Entertainment The Spokesman Review (Blog)Google News - Aug 25, 2011
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Exchange Club Daily HeraldGoogle News - Aug 24, 2011
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Hillsborough Heavies Celebrate Concours D'elegance At Crystal Springs Golf Course Huffington Post (Blog)Google News - Aug 23, 2011
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Bing Crosby.
CHILDHOOD
1903
Birth
Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, on May 3, 1903, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street.
TEENAGE
1917
14 Years Old
In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad libbing and spoofs of Hawaiian songs.
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TWENTIES
1923
20 Years Old
In 1923, Bing Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high school students much younger than himself.
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1925
22 Years Old
By 1925, Crosby had formed a vocal duo with partner Al Rinker, brother of singer Mildred Bailey. Mildred introduced Al and Bing to Paul Whiteman, who was at that time America's most famous bandleader. Hired for $150 a week, they made their debut on December 6, 1926 at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago).
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1928
25 Years Old
Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys, and in 1928 had his first number one hit with the Whiteman orchestra, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River".
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1930
27 Years Old
Crosby was married twice, first to actress/nightclub singer Dixie Lee from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952.
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On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his solo radio debut.
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1932
29 Years Old
Crosby played the lead in a series of sound era musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett, signed a long-term deal with Jack Kapp's new record company Decca, and starred in his first full-length feature, 1932's The Big Broadcast, the first of 55 films in which he received top billing.
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THIRTIES
1940
37 Years Old
Kathryn converted to Catholicism in order to marry the singer. Crosby was also a registered Republican, and actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie in 1940 against President Roosevelt, arguing that no man should serve more than two terms in the White House.
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1941
38 Years Old
The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", which he first introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941 (of which no extant copy is known), and soon thereafter in his 1942 movie Holiday Inn.
1942
39 Years Old
Crosby's recording hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to No. 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks.
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FORTIES
1944
41 Years Old
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Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944, and was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of Saint Mary's.
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Crosby's radio career took a significant turn in 1945, when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre-record his radio shows. (The live production of radio shows was also reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP, which wanted to ensure continued work for their members.) In On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, historian John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near-professional broadcast quality standard:
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But Murdo MacKenzie of Bing Crosby Enterprises had seen a demonstration of the German Magnetophon in June 1947—the same device that Jack Mullin had brought back from Radio Frankfurt, along with 50 reels of tape, at the end of the war.
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Crosby had launched the tape recorder revolution in America. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, Bing Crosby is seen singing into one of the new Ampex tape recorders that reproduced his voice better than anything else.
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FIFTIES
1959
56 Years Old
NAFI Corporation and Bing Crosby purchase together the television station, KPTV, for $4 million on September 1, 1959.
In 1960, NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby's group.
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LATE ADULTHOOD
Crosby finally quit smoking his pipe following lung surgery in 1974.
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In March 1977, after videotaping a concert for CBS to commemorate his 50th anniversary in show business and with Bob Hope looking on, Crosby backed off the stage and fell into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back and requiring a month in the hospital.
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Crosby.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.